Thursday, April 07, 2016

Accumulation of Stuff

It was closing in on 115 degrees Fahrenheit in Mesa, Arizona. A normal day for any hot desert location.

We were spending time attending to family matters. My wife, sister-in-law and a world of emotion surrounding our current task. With all that was going on, the intense heat was a mild distraction.

Even the search for any amount of shade under which one could parking the car was coming at a premium. If you find a bit of shade, it makes a huge difference and air conditioning continues to run at full blast trying to stay ahead of the searing heat.

Our time in Mesa was not a social visit in nature. We were handling my mother-in-law's care after her second husband passed away. Both were in their eighties at the time and Mom was in a nursing care facility.

So our task was to finish out the matters which one has during these times. It meant ensuring final arrangements were made, the home cleaned out and sold; the end of life things which each of us will go through eventually.

It reminded me of all the 'stuff' we accumulate in life.

The papers, the tools, the knick-knacks, mementos, and pictures we amass over our lifetime. There were the prescription bottles, clothes, and shoes which filled the cupboards and closets. Gardening tools and outdoor gnomes which spoke to an active life once roaming the grounds.

As we continued the process, I realized how little all of those material items mean. Their value was nothing compared to the life we have lived, or the love and goodness we had shared with others. All of us accumulate all of these things through out our life.

The good, the bad, and the ugly; yes, that was a reference to a Clint Eastwood movie of the same name. But we ourselves are also an accumulation of those things we have done with our life. We are not measured by our money or possessions, nor are we remembered for having the coolest car or the fanciest house.

The memory of me or you or anyone is based upon how we lived our life. It is based upon how we treated, loved, hated, or lifted others. And while none of us are perfect in our life's accumulation, what we can do now is strive to live it well.

Be a positive force in the lives of others and leave of memory of our life with people saying, "there lived a great person who did great things for others."